Given that there now exists reasonable grounds to conclude that the final electoral roll contains almost 25,000 duplicate voters, including deceased persons and others not entitled to vote, MANS today filed criminal charges against the relevant Ministers and their assistants.
In addition to the earlier examples presented by MANS concerning the more than 14,000 potential double voters, the final version of the electoral register includes more than 10,000 voters over 60 than there exist in the census. MANS found that among these there are many who are not among the living but still have the right to vote. Furthermore, many of them have only recently been registered in the Central Voter List (CBS) even though they were born in Montenegro.
In relation to the previous version of the CBS, the final voters list has removed 500 persons older than 60 years, confirming that dead voters were registered in the previous version of CBS, but on a much smaller scale than in the CBS’s final version.
Specifically, the CBS now contains over 5,800 persons older than 60 than were in the census completed in 2011. Furthermore, statistical data provided by MONSTAT covering the period from 2007 to 2010 show that in the category of persons older than 60 some 4,500 persons pass-away on average each year. Data for the whole of 2011 are not available, but based on monthly data published by MONSTAT it is evident that there has been no significant change in the mortality rate. This means that, when considering the period when the list was made, another 4,5000 persons should be eliminated from the CBS.
Table: Number of deceased persons, by age group.
Age
Number of deaths per year
Average number of deaths in one year
2007
2008
2009
2010
60-64
381
382
418
438
405
65-69
677
582
591
484
584
70-74
914
899
900
859
893
75-79
1054
983
1033
986
1.014
80-84
954
932
1015
965
967
85 and above
825
802
750
820
799
TOTAL
4805
4580
4707
4552
4661
(Source: MONSTAT, Statistical Yearbooks, Department of Statistics and Census Demographics)
Since we have not been given access to the death registry, MANS has based its assertions on the reports of citizens and random sampling. We have found many examples of people who have died and are still found on the voters list.
Based on data from death certificates published this year, MANS found numerous examples of people who have died yet continue to have the right to vote (even though authorities claim to have erased all persons who died prior to September 2012).
For example, Ćipranić Milos, who died in July at the age of 103 and was buried at the local cemetery in Liverovići remains on the electoral roll and has the right to vote locally.
Kankaraš Jela born in 1917, died in mid-June in Straševina, though she remains on the electoral roll with an address in Straševina (Niksic).
Čogurić Budimir died in May at 92 and was buried in a cemetery in Grnčarevo. Nevertheless, he remains on the electoral roll in Grnčarevo (Bijelo Polje),
Ivanisevic Jovanka died in May at 87 and was buried in Cetinje, she still retains a right to vote in that city. Similar examples are those of Radević Ljubinka who died in the same year and was buried at Bioce and continues to have a right to vote in Podgorica, as well as Rada Pajević buried in Strojtanica and still eligible to case a ballot in Bijelo Polje while being listed as living at an address in Strojtanica.
Milijana Kastratović from Berane died in February at 85 and was buried in the village cemetery of Budimlja. She remains on the electoral register at the same address.
On the electoral roll we also find Mijović Ljubica, who died in May at 83 and was buried in the village Liješta. In the same village Vidra Mijović was also buried in the past year, though she remains on the electoral roll at the same address.
At 83 years of age Desanka Vujacic passed away and was buried in Golubovci, yet she is still on the voters’ list registered at a Golubovci address.
Jovanka Ćosović died at 82 and was buried in Zabljak, yet she still has the right to vote in that city.
Kljajević Granica died at 82 and was buried in the cemetery at Kovren. She is still on the list of voters from Bijelo Polje registered as living at an address in Kovren.
Vukosava Ratkovic died aged 80 and was buried in the village Bašča (Rozaje) and remains in the electoral register at the same address.
Striković Anka, from Savnik, died at 76 and was buried in the village of Donja Bijela. She is still on the electoral roll at the same address.
In Cetinje Stojanovic Njegosava died at the age of 72 and was buried in Velestovo. She still has the right to vote and is still registered as living in the village.
Examples are also to be found in Pluzine where Jelenka Radovic, who died at 71 and was buried in the village Mratinje is still in the electoral register.
There are also examples from other cities, even of younger people who died and are still found on the CBS rolls. However, accurate records can be determined only by making direct comparisons between the CBS rolls and the death registry, something authorities are persistently refusing to allow. They are violating the Law on Electoral Rolls by barring access to political parties to this information.
Therefore, we ask that the authorities allow access to the death registry, as well as information on the release of new ID cards prior to the election (particularly in the case of persons with a dual identity) but also for the elderly who are only now being registered as voters.
In fact, there are many examples of very old persons born in Montenegro, who did not previously have the right to vote during the previous elections but were only recently registered.
The oldest people only now enrolled in the CBS, even though they weren’t previously registered include 92 year old Mitar Jankovic from Kolasin and Khadijah Ličina from Rozaje, as well as 90-year-old Gospava Krtolica from Niksic, all born in Montenegro.
The occurrence of subsequent voter registration is notable in all municipalities. Only in Podgorica, in the last three years, there were dozens of elderly voters enrolled, all born in Montenegro. This includes Prek Đoljević (85), Bojaj Nuo and Đeković Ton (84), Nikaj Nikola and Loncar and Milovan (83), Viljević Filje, Milka Djuric and Radanovic Vladimir (82) as well as Jelusic Plana and Kraljevic Desanka (81), Kaljević Aga Aga and Mernacaj Aga (80) among many others.
In Budva, Kovac Gospava (87), Stijepčević Danica (86), Kusovac Djordje (82), Ivo Pavicevic (80) and many others from previous elections who had no vote are now registered.
Newly registered voters are also found in Berane, including Čivović Ankuša and Osmanovic Delva (85), Jovan Ojdanic (83), Koprcina Natalia (81) and Mirčić Stevka (80). New voters in Bijelo Polje were slightly younger than in Berane, including Alta Mušović (75), Femić Stanojka (73) and Jaćimović Vuk (71).
In Danilovgrad recently registered individuals include Stanisic Jole (83), John Čobeljić (82) and Braletić Grujica (81), while in Cetinje we find Mićković Anka (75).
Even though they were not among registered voters for the parliamentary elections in 2009 a number of new voters are to be found in Herceg-Novi, including Olga Ogurlić (88), Veselin Čađenović (82), Vladimir Malovic (80) and many older citizens who were not registered in the last election.
In the municipality of Kolasin newly registered voters include Radmila Lakićević who is 81 years old, Mile Raščanin (79), Zarko Gospava and Miranović Vlahovic (78), among many others, while in Kotor there are Mara Ivetić (88), Petar Janjic (82) and V. Subotic (80).
The appearance of a ‘syndrome’ for enrolling elderly voters is confirmed by the example of the municipality of Niksic. There we find among those recently enrolled Milica Babic (89), Dusan Lalatović (84), as well as Milan Vukovic and Nedjeljko Boskovic (78), among others.
Compared to previous elections, we also find Vujadin Sekulic (74), Radmila Čobeljić (71) and Vojislav Bozovic (70) in Mojkovac. The situation is no different in Plav, which recently saw the registration of Milena Jokic (82), Ramsey Muratagic (79), Hakija Bektešević (78) among others.
Recently in Pljevlja Vida Ostojic (85), Nezaheta HARBIĆ (83), Velika Gošić and Miluša Ostojic (79) were registered. Plužine has also seen an increase in elderly voters recently, including 86-year old Dragoljub Delic, Milenko Tadic (77) and Zorka Dubljević (76).
Comparing the central CBS rolls from 2009 with those from 2012, MANS noted that in Rozaje Recep Ljaić (84) and Sajka Ljaić (82), as well as Bada Ibrović (79) and Dautović Zeca and many other senior citizens were recently registered.
In Tivat Đorđije Durutović (85) was recently added, the same goes for Divna Neradović (83), Komnenić Petrica (80) and many others. The same occurred in Zabljak where Stanojka Dakic (85), Dobrinka Bojovic (76) and others were registered.
For examples in Ulcinj, Bar and Andrijevice MANS had drawn attention to a number of cases, though these were retained in the electoral register.
Based on several thousand concrete example, we have sufficient grounds to suspect that the deceased that have remained on the CBS roll in order to procure ‘safe votes’ and thus influence election results. This is particularly problematic given that many of these individuals have old ID cards that can be easily forged and that have old photographs, thus enabling the exchange of identities and voting on behalf of the deceased.
For these reasons, MANS today filed a criminal complaint against the Minister Ivan Brajovic and his aide Abid Crnovrsanin, as well as Minister Vujica Lazovic and his assistant Radula Novovic for crimes related to the compilation of an inaccurate voter list and abuse of office in order to influence the results of elections. The aim is to ensure that the political parties to which they belong – the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) – remain in power.
Lazovic, Brajovic, Crnovršanin and Novović, as responsible persons in the Ministry for Information Society and Telecommunications and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration, have allowed the compilation of inaccurate voter lists, then abused their power to prevent active measures that would have removed irregularities in the CBS, even though they were aware of these problems. Even though they had the incorrect information specifically pointed out to them, they instead chose to dismiss the evidence in order to hide their own culpability, thus ensuring that the irregularities remain in the final voting rolls.
MANS does not expect that the current Supreme State Prosecutor, directly influenced by the executive, will impartially determine individual responsibility for such crimes of political corruption. Nevertheless, we will retain all our evidence for a new, more professional and expert Supreme Prosecutor that will eventually take up this position.
The irregularities MANS uncovered will be published in a separate report that will be distributed to all relevant international actors.
